FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel sees a high frequency future. “We will need to bust through this old 3 GHz ceiling and create new possibilities for millimeter wave spectrum in the airwaves at 24 GHz and above. This is spectrum that is way, way up there. I think of this as the airwaves that will take us to infinity and beyond.” Thursday, March 10, Rappaport will be the keynote speaker at the all day FCC Workshop on Spectrum Frontiers and Technological Developments.

Rappaport tells Fierce Wireless, “I’m very, very encouraged to see that the world’s standards body for cellular, 3GPP, is taking millimeter wave very seriously … That the global wireless industry is thinking about backhaul in millimeter wave spectrum, the Internet of Things and the idea of communicating with unlicensed and licensed devices at millimeter wave spectrum are all great positives.” He adds, “I’m also very excited to see that there’s a tremendous amount of work going on by the companies to do their own radio propagation measurements and channel modeling experiments. When companies around the world start building channel sounders and start having their own staff take measurements and do trials of the equipment, it shows that the industry is very serious about learning and mastering the technologies. I see this happening at a remarkable clip over the last six to 12 months. I think it means the engineering know-how and the technology progress will both be very rapid.”

MillimeterwaveTed literally wrote the book on the subject, Millimeter Wave Wireless Communications, with Heath, Daniels and Murdock. His center at NYU has been acclaimed as the academic world’s #1 wireless research center.

Rappaport and team did thousands of tests of high frequency gear, including in the difficult streets of Manhattan. That work convinced the industry that using millimeter waves will work.